Baron Death

Sounds like a lovely character doesn't he? Well - he's not! He was designed a number of years ago by myself and Dan to be the arch-nemesis of the superhero group we created named Delta Wave. Delta Wave isn't the most inspired name for a group, but heck - we were 12!

Baron Death - in the plastic!

 Flicking back through the piles of paper that I've kept from our rather inventive youth. I came across this illustration of the good Baron, done by Dan. In this incarnation of the character he had a habit of stealing people's souls and creating an army of zombies as a result. I like that evilness, so we will stick with it!

His bio states that he is a Pakistani terrorist with a mucked up face. Why would he call himself Baron then? Wouldn't he go with Khan or something? A much later variant saw him as a Belgian. I like the Pakistani angle though - very contemporary, which it wasn't in 1989 when we invented him. He is very ancient, killing people and stealing their souls keeps him alive, so he is a bit like a vampire - with a horde of zombie followers. I think that makes him sufficiently badass to be Delta Wave's nemesis.

The first member of Delta Wave to be invented was a guy called Aphid. He has the power to draw on photosynthesised energy from plants and use it to boost his strength and toughness. He can also project powerful bio-electric blasts. This makes him much cooler than his original incarnation where he was a second rate Ant-Man (so does that make him a third rate superhero?).

A repainted Animal Man becomes the Aphid

The original design for Aphid. Green and gold was just too Australian though...

The next chap I have put together is Ore. He started life with the code-name Dustmaster, but this made him sound like a vacuum cleaner. Ore has the ability to take particles of dust and dirt and cement them together into temporary rock. After a while, without him consciously holding it together, the rock crumbles back into dust and dirt. He went through a bit of a shift in abilities too, where he could simply control dirt and rock. I prefer the original version to be honest.

Ore, standing on a rock pile that he generated  underneath himself. His body is covered in a thin rocky coating that gives him increased toughness in combat.

I can't find any original drawings of Ore (or Dustmaster), so here is a later one that has a couple of panels showing Aphid, Ore, and the hithertofore unmentioned, Aura:

Try to ignore the awful dialogue... and art...

In this version Ore simply wears armour, so I've stuck with a 'clix figure with the same ouline but given him a coating of polyfilla for a rocky carapace.

There are more supers on the painting tray as I write. They will appear soon.

Nate